


Free

by Velace



Series: Random Moments [46]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 20:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14601189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velace/pseuds/Velace
Summary: Life in the White Kingdom had always been a bit too dull. The war with the Dark Kingdom kept most people on their toes, but not the Princess. Not Emma. Thanks to a life lived in secret, there wasn’t a lot she’d been able to do about it. Her mother always said life would get better, but each name day passed one after the next, and nothing changed.What hope she held on to for something different dwindled each day, which was a reason, if not the most important one in a long list of many, for why she did what she did when she entered the throne room that afternoon.





	Free

 

“I accept.”

The White Queen gasps, shouting her name while the Evil Queen throws back her head and laughs. It is a sound that might fill any other with dread, but all Emma feels upon hearing it is the anticipation running through her veins— the heated rush of excitement.

“You could not keep me hidden forever, mother.” Head held high, she moves down the isle with a grace none of her tutors would ever believe she possessed considering the amount of trouble she gave them as a child. Standing before the Evil Queen, her eyes linger on the woman for only a moment before she raises them and meets her mother’s stare. “It’s time.”

Tears shimmering in her eyes, Snow shakes her head. “You don’t know—”

“I do,” Emma interrupts. She knows the stories better than most, and never felt quite as horrified by them as her mother hoped she would be. She didn’t know it when she was younger, but she knows it now; she doesn’t belong here. “You promised me a choice,” she reminds her mother. “I choose her.”

A dark, throated chuckle sends a shiver of pleasure down her spine. “I must say, Snow, you have certainly outdone yourself.” Emma stands tall as the Queen circles her, the whisper of a finger brushing against her back. “Such a pretty little thing you and that buffoon have gifted our world.”

Dryness coating her mouth, Emma swallows before taking a quiet breath. “Whatever life you envisioned for me disappeared the day this war began,” she continues. “If having me will grant the kingdom a peace they haven’t known in over two decades, then you have no choice.”

“Emma…”

She forces a smile and softens her tone, reluctantly stepping away from the Queen as she ascends the dais to her mother. “You know I’m right,” she says. “I will be fine.”

Better than fine. She will be free, no longer hidden away and kept from living her life the way she wants to. Free from obligations she did not choose, from her parents misplaced fear, from a kingdom supposedly her own but from which barely any know she exists.

“I cannot protect you when you are with her.”

Sighing inwardly, she surrenders herself to this one last desire of her mother’s and embraces her while offering quiet reassurances. “I am your daughter,” she murmurs softly. “She is the one who’ll need protecting.”

Snow shakes her head, chuckling wetly as she returns the embrace. “You are just like your father.”

Eyes drifting to his throne, Emma hides her grimace. They may look alike but she is nothing like him, and never has she been more grateful for anything. He sought to keep her from this meeting, to distract her from the thing she desires above all else with the promise of a day meant only for them, as if she’d ever asked for such a thing. How any of them have survived a twenty-something year war with the Evil Queen and kept their delusions in tact that the reason is anything more than by the grace of the woman herself continues to baffle her.

Her parents are both naïve and weak, and she has long since grown tired of suffering for the sake of their choices.

Feeling the skin prickle on the back of her neck in warning, she pulls from the embrace with another false smile. “I will be fine,” she insists, “And I will see you again in a season’s time.”

Snow grabs her by the arms before she can pull away altogether. “I will find a way out of this,” she promises.

“No.” Eyes widening, her grip slackens and Emma grabs her hands, squeezing gently. “You are the Queen,” she reasons. “When you sign the truce, you must uphold the deal and be an example to your people. I will adapt, as I have always done.”

Their conversation continues in a similar vein until her father arrives. By then, the prickling at the back of her neck has ranged between impatiently intense and disturbingly absent whenever the Queen became distracted. Her farewell to her father was much briefer, though it was obvious he would have preferred more time to convince her against going anywhere with their family’s sworn enemy.

Once the council had arrived and her mother had informed them of the decision, Emma departed to gather her things from her chambers and went to the courtyard to await her new Queen.

* * *

Regina clucks her tongue as they enter the carriage and take their seats. A sharp snap of the driver’s name has them moving an instant later and her voice changes from that of command to something vaguely mocking. “I will be fine?”

Emma rolls her eyes, mouth forming the first genuine smile she’s given all day. “What? Did you want another war right there in the throne room?”

“I free you from your shackles,” Regina drawls, “and fine is the best you can come up with?”

“You think doing a little dance while singing your praise was going to get her to let me go any sooner?”

“No,” she concedes, eyes brightening with her amusement. “— but I’d like to see that at your earliest convenience.”

Emma snorts, retorting, “How’s never sound?”

Regina pouts. “Disappointing.”

Stomach fluttering, Emma bites the inside of her cheek and shifts in her seat in the vain hope it might relieve the sensation. It doesn’t, and she should have known better. “How’d your advisors take the news?”

Studying her intently, eyes darkening slightly, Regina gestures dismissively and replies, “They’re furious, but when are they ever not?”

Emma frowns. She figured most, if not all of those in their kingdoms would be glad when the Queens finally agreed to set aside their feud. She doesn’t know much about the Dark Kingdom, but surely the war had to be taking a toll by now. If not on the people, then at least on the kingdom itself; another half a decade and the White Kingdom would have been destitute at the rate they were consuming resources. “They want the war to continue?”

Sniffing, Regina directs her attention ahead, adopting an indifferent expression meant to hide the scowl that briefly contorts her face. “What they want is irrelevant.”

Emma sees, but she doesn’t understand. “Yes, I know, but I meant—”

Regina sighs heavily and meets her gaze again as she interrupts, “I know what you meant,”

“And?”

“And,” she growls. “They were hoping I would betray you this afternoon, kill your parents, and take you against your will before burning your home to the ground.”

Emma blinks back in surprise. “Oh.”

The anger bleeds from Regina’s expression and voice, and she averts her gaze once more. “As I said,” she adds, “what they want is irrelevant.”

Emma nods, swallowing the many questions she has for fear of that anger returning. Hard as it might be to believe given her present company and the life she’s lead up until this point, she doesn’t have a death wish just yet. Not wanting the silence to develop between them, however, she decides to change the subject.

“So,” she starts, peering out of the carriage window to the forest beyond. “What will I be doing in this kingdom of yours?”

The silence she was hoping to keep at bay is her only answer and she turns her head, breath hitching at how close the Queen has managed to get in these few short seconds without her sensing the move. Mere inches apart, dark lips turn upwards in a grin as Emma presses herself back against the window.

“The point of my freeing you was for you to have a choice,” Regina purrs. “You may do whatever you wish— be whoever you like… as long as you uphold your end of our bargain.”

“It was a promise,” Emma murmurs, “not a bargain, and I will.”

“Good.” Sitting back, Regina folds her hands in her lap and turns her attention to her own window. “We should arrive before supper. Father is looking forward to meeting you in person.”

At the mention of the man she has met only a handful of times through the glass of her bedroom mirror, Emma smiles warmly. “And I him,” she replies, shifting back into her seat. She hums, drawing Regina’s gaze back to her before she informs, “I want to be a knight.”

Regina tilts her head, brow furrowing thoughtfully before her head dips forward. “Then a knight you shall be.”


End file.
